Opinion: Busy doctors, wasteful spending

Of all the ways to limit health care costs, perhaps none is as popular as cutting payments to doctors. In recent years payment cuts have resulted in a sharp downturn in revenue for many hospitals and private practices. What this has meant for most physicians is that in order to maintain their income, they've had to see more patients. When you reduce the volume of air per breath, the only way to maintain ventilation is to breathe faster. As our workdays have gotten busier, we doctors have had less time to devote to individual patients. An internist I know in private practice used to see 15 patients a day.